<p>I am a Latino male from Florida, attend top school in state, for gifted etc.
my stats:</p>
<p>SAT: M 720 CR 670 W 660
ACT: 30
SAT II: will take in october</p>
<p>school does not rank, but probably in top quarter
GPA: 3.5 uw 4.2 wt
all honors courses except for 7 AP courses: AP US Hist, AP World Hist, AP Enviro Sci, AP Stat, AP Gov, AP Macroeconomics, AP English Lang</p>
<p>EC: crew for 4 years, senior year Captain, Rookie of the Year Freshman year; highly competive recruiting stats (princeton recruit); close to 20 hours a week of involvement in crew
Comm Service: 180 hours, teaching kids to row
Summers: crew camps, volunteer work at crew</p>
<p>I am visiting later this summer, and Lehigh is my current #1 so interest is definitely extremely high! I don't have much extra stuff other than crew because its year-round, through all of school and summer... so im hoping that is understood!</p>
<p>I think your academics and sports leadership make you a solidly competitive applicant.</p>
<p>Apply ED ONLY if you will be able to handle the finacial package as offered. Lehigh doesn't give a lot of merit aid to have more money for need based aid. Your SATs are comparable to my daughter's and she did not get any merit money. Any student who will have weigh financial packages should NOT apply ED.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input, and does my stature as a latino male help? I have heard rumors of Lehigh's desire to increase diversity in their student population, and I'd like to know if there is any truth to this..and for finacial packages in terms of merit based money, would I be a solid canidate to get that, if I do decide to apply non-ED? Why is there no money for ED acceptees? I don't qualify for need-based, but I am stuck in that middle ground where I definitely need help to pay for a school like Lehigh...clarification is much appreciated, thanks!!</p>
<p>At Lehigh, the male part won't help (Lehigh is one of the few schools left than enrolls more men than women), but the Latino part may. Lehigh is striving to be a more diverse university, especially now under the new Alice Gast presidency. It'll be tough to overcome the white male preppy image; high achieving URMs will have to begin to think of Lehigh as a possibility. You may be the type of applicant Lehigh hopes will add to student body.</p>
<p>Make sure you contact the crew coach. </p>
<p>BTW, I can't remember the exact figures, but the Lehigh admissions office boasts that a high percentage of those who have visited the campus tend to to matriculate, hence their insistence on students making an official visit. They are more likely to accept students whom they think will ultimately attend.</p>
<p>Coming from Florida may help as much as being Latino. The most competitive geographic area is probably New Jersey; those students have a tougher road to get in.</p>
<p>Lehigh does give merit money to ED applicants. They just don't give a lot of merit money, period. The $15k scholarships go to the top 5% of admits and the $10k go to the top 10%.<br>
Like I said, my daughter's SATs were very similar (almost identical) to yours and she didn't get any merit money. I talked with our regional counselor after hearing that we didn't get any merit money and she said that Lehigh only gives about 100 merit scholarships. She reviewed my daughter's folder and said that she was an "upper middle" student. Why don't you talk with your regional counselor about the possibility of merit aid? It might help you decide whether to apply ED or ID.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input about my advantage in ethnic status and financial concerns, and I have contacted the crew coach, and he has offered me an official recruiting (overnight) visit, so everything is in the works for multiple visits etc.</p>
<p>I have one more question, LWMD, your daughter sounds like she has a lot of the same "educational stats" as me, could you clarify, because I am also an "upper middle" student, and I would like to know if any "upper middle" students actually make it for merit, or does the 100 not reach down that far? Also, what is ID? Is it the same as regular decision?</p>
<p>I remembered her Math score incorrectly. I though she got a 710. It was a little lower. What I remember from our experience and my conversation with our regional admissions counselor is that one of the first "cuts" for a merit scholarship was M + CR > 1400 and she didn't make that cut. Her year was the first for the Writing section and the rumors were that everybody got a "bye" with the Writing section. I don't know if the Writing section score figures in to merit scholarships yet. I don't remember her ACT. Her school doesn't officially rank, but I know she was in the top 10 students, because the top 10 are invited to be in the valedictorian pool. She was in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in her school. Between her IB tests and her AP tests, she got credit in 5 or 6 classes.
I should have done a little more reviewing before suggesting ID -- interim decision, because some schools offer a non-binding interim decision. Lehigh has ED I, ED II, and Regular Decision. Both of their ED options are binding -- I just reviewed this. (Many applications, two years ago, it's all a blur. Now I just pay the bills.)
Hope this helps. Good luck. She loves Lehigh.</p>
<p>I do have one more question though, concerning the Boston schools, primarily BU/BC/Northeastern. I am also looking at these schools, and since your daughter went to Lehigh, I would very much like to know if she applied to those Boston schools as well, and if she did, what they offered her, and why she picked Lehigh instead. If she didn't do anything with those schools, thanks anyway!</p>